Universal #250

Legacy number: 250

 Number  250
 Original  All truly flexible languages allow all classes of predicate, up to and including possessive ones, to be used predicatively.
 Standardized  IF parts-of-speech classification is truly flexible, THEN all classes of predicates can be used predicatively.
 Formula  flexible language ⇒ predicative use (all classes of predicates)
 Keywords  word class, flexible, predicate, possessive
 Domain  inflection, syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  absolute
 Basis  37 languages of Hengeveld’s sample
 Source  Hengeveld 1992: 135

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Discussion
Notes
Hengeveld 1992: 65: “... non-specialized parts-of-speech systems can be subclassified into two major groups: those in which a single part of speech may be used in different functions, and those in which for certain functions a part of speech is lacking. The former may be called flexible languages, the latter rigid languages.”
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Hengeveld 1992: 65: "... non-specialized parts-of-speech systems can be subclassified into two major groups: those in which a single part of speech may be used in different functions, and those in which for certain functions a part of speech is lacking. The former may be called flexible languages, the latter rigid languages."